Perseverance Research Paper

When I showed up to softball tryouts at the beginning of my senior year, I was convinced that I was going to be put on the junior varsity team for the fourth consecutive year. I was sure that I would never be moved up to varsity, regardless of how hard I played. My junior year I was embarrassed to be one of only two juniors on J.V. I was so self-conscious, that I had considered quitting so that I wouldn’t be the only senior not on varsity. However, I decided that quitting would be more humiliating than being on J.V. and forced myself to play my final season of softball. I showed up to tryouts the first week of school, and I played with every ounce of effort that I had. When teams were announced, I was legitimately shocked to find out that I

As I put off opportunities to improve my skills, and my character, the toll only became harsher and more difficult to overcome. In turn, my status among the other athletes began to deteriorate. Witnessing my peers expedite their game as I still struggled did not phase me so much at the time. In fact, I was sure that my role on the team would remain the same. This was obviously false, as within the matter of weeks I was pushed back further in the batting lineup, and committing more errors in the field than ever before. It was during our playoff run that I had realized the resulting detriment, when each player was counted on more than ever before. We ended up making it to the championship, only being one run short of winning. Although our team was able to accomplish that much, I felt short handed when it came to the successful

We practiced everyday nonstop and won game after game. We became infamous to the other teams for our ability to decimate our competition. Everything was going well until the semifinals when I was called up to bat. I never had to bat in any of the previous games because there was a turnover before I even had a chance to bat. I was completely dumbfounded, I double checked with the coach to make sure I was truly next, I then asked the batting coach and he said the same. I nervously put on my gloves and helmet as I watched the previous player who had stuck out come back to the dugout with his head down. It was the last inning and there were players on first, second, and third. A tied game between us and the White Sox. I slowly dragged myself to home plate and stood there. I raised the bat behind my head and held it firmly just as my batting coach said. I concentraded my breathing as sweat began to collect on my fore head. We had two outs and all I had to do was tap the ball and we would go on to the finals and then glory. The pitcher gazed took a deep breath and paused. Then in a blink of an eye he

It was 9 a.m. and my mom barged into my room. She turned on my light and told me to get ready. The light hit my face forcing me to wake up. I could hear my mom and dad packing and loading our luggage into our truck. Today’s the day, I thought, Today was my last softball tournament for at least 4 months. I got that same feeling that I get when you go down the first arch on a roller coaster in my stomach. This happens every time I have a tournament or game. My stomach flips and I get butterflies in my stomach. I get nervous to make a mistake, make everyone mad, and frustrate everyone, especially my family. My anxiety consumes me and I get so nervous when the ball comes to me that my heart starts racing. I don’t want to be the one to let everyone down. But I’ve been getting better at not being scared. I’ve been trying to believe in myself more and have been overcoming my fear. I put my thoughts aside and got up, brushed my teeth, put my contacts on, washed my face, and got my uniform on. I brushed my my hair, put it in a ponytail and got some gel to slick back my hair. The gel felt like slime as I slicked it back on my hair, and I put my bow on. I went to my room to get my sweatband and was debating on what color I should wear to match my uniform. I decided to bring both of my headbands and decide which one I should wear today on the ride over to the ballpark. I got my bag that I had packed yesterday, double checked that I had everything I

The game was going great. Each inning we would get the other team out quickly and the team was hitting a lot. The fifth inning came and went and I had still not played. I understand I say to myself. These girls are better than me. I go to the water jug to get Erin some water when I hear Mr. Nick say my name. I turn to look at him and he tells me to get my helmet. I got so

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other.” My concept is perseverance. The definition perseverance from the Webster dictionary- “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.” Synonyms for perseverance are, “tenacity” and “determination”. Antonyms for perseverance are, “apathy” and “cowardice”. A person needs to persevere so that they can reach their goals and succeed in life and live how they want to live. Perseverance looks like, someone wanting a promotion. So they work harder and harder to impress their superiors so that hopefully they give them a promotion. Perseverance does not look like, wanting a promotion, but not working hard to impress your

According to Samuel Smiles, “we learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.” This became emphatically clear during my Junior year. Suffering an ongoing illness kept me absent from school and practice far too often. Both academic and physical challenges were the result. As a student-athlete, maintaining exceptional grades and high competitive standards already prove difficult, thus time management, determination, and a strong work-ethic become a natural part of daily life. Illness complicates matters as making up lost time creates hardships in both areas. Failures in the class and in the pool proved to present some tough lessons.

After I got on base our 2nd and 3rd batters struck out. The 4th guy (Nick Clemmons) hit me in, our 5th guy (Eli Pedigo) hit Nick in and we were tied eight to eight. We were in extra innings until the 9th inning. It was extremely intense by then. We had to put in our 4th pitcher who walked some of the other team. Bases were loaded. They hit one to someone in the infield (I don’t remember who) and they threw them out at home.

When we arrived at the field, we noticed the stand full of eager fans that had as much hope as we had. The game before us was still going on, so we had to wait nervously on the side. As the game ended, we eased out onto the field to warm up. It took us a few minutes to warm up as the coaches and umpires met before the game. When everyone was finished prepping for the game, we met in the dugout to find out that we had to take the field first. Our opponent we were facing was ranked number one in the state in class B baseball, so we had a large feat ahead of us. As we took the field, our opponent was up to bat. I was playing catcher so I had a large amount of work ahead of me. We held our opponent to only one run the first inning. It was our turn to bat. I lead off the batting order getting walked on base. One of my teammates drove me in to get a score on the board for us. The second inning took a turn for the worst and ended with a score of 5-1 in their favor.

The summer before my junior year, I worked harder than I ever had to train for my first varsity season. Immediately after an intense run, I would go home and ice my ankle to relieve the pain that I ignored during the workout itself. “Push through;” I would tell myself, “be strong!” I thought that I was being strong by working through the pain. Sports media always praises the athletes who played the championship game on a broken foot or a sprained ankle, but you never hear about the kid who trains through the everlasting two-a-days of preseason and never makes it to the first game. I thought that by pushing

These obstacles didn’t affect my football aspirations as much as they gave me a challenge with my school work. My concussion made it difficult to process information in my classes, and my broken arm made it difficult to write to complete my class assignments. Nevertheless, I applied the lessons I had learned from previous obstacles that helped me improve as an athlete to the classroom. I persevered and learned to accept the hand that I was dealt and made the best of a bad situation. The character that was revealed to me about myself through injury is that resilience is what allows one to effectively overcome obstacles in life. The challenges that I faced from playing football have revealed to me how I can accept a situation and make the best of it. My personal injuries that have affected me during high school have demonstrated and built my character, which will benefit me in the long-term as I prepare for college and life in

Winning and losing games in high school built perseverance in me. Playing basketball at West Creek High School was one of the hardest teams I have ever played for. I was the most experienced player on the team. Our varsity team was made up of 4 seniors and I was the only one committed to go to a college. I can think of times when I had to pull the team together because we were down in the game and we did not know how to overcome adversity. Our in-town rival was Kenwood High School, the school is on the same road as West Creek. In this game, we were down to the final minutes of regulation and we were down 4 points. We could hear the chant “Aye move West Creek out the way!” already emitting form the home side of the gymnasium. Looking at my team mates’ faces and body language I could tell they had already given up on the game. Coach had called a timeout to tell us the new game plan. I pulled my four teammates in and told them “it is not over until the last buzzer had sounded. Play hard on defense and get me the ball on offense and we will bring the win back to West Creek.” We came down to the last possession of the game and they gave me the ball. As I drove to the basket, I was fouled on the play, but the referee did not call the foul. I let the team, the fans and the school down. Taking all the criticism, I did not let it stop me from coming back next game and giving it my all.

When the season started, I was confident I would maintain the position I had played the previous year. During practice, I was as good or better than any other player in that position. My batting skills had come around and I was looking forward to the first game. To everyone’s surprise, several pivotal positions took a drastic change. A 10th grader was assigned to first base and the first baseman who had played that position extremely well for the past two seasons was moved to my position. I was removed from the rotation and listed

After we got everything set up in our dugout we went to warm up. As we were hitting in the batting cages teams were coming up to us and saying how amazing we were and how bad they wanted us to win this game. This made us even more pumped to win. After we got back from the batting cages it was so packed with people and there were many softball and baseball teams there to watch the game. We had to take grounders and pop flies. Which we were doing really good. As I was warming up our number one pitcher I was watching the other team and wow did they look good. After, my team

"Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place - that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have the perseverance to realize the great life. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam." Now the word perseverance means the act or power of continuing to do something in spite of the difficulties that confront someone. Perseverance is important because it shows what someone has been through and how they overcame it. An example of this is a girl who has a math test at school and by studying for the test she is able to pass it. This is showing perseverance with her studying for her test. In this essay, there will be three stories and how these people persevered through their life trials. The first story is about a woman named Temple Grandin, who was born autistic and faces the world with her different thinking process. She persevered throughout all of her life and becomes a college professor. The second story is from Desert Exile. This story is about a little girl who shows her experience of being moved to a camp in the United States. The reason the united states did this is so they could prevent any further attack by the Japanese on pearl harbor. The last story is a book titled Twice Pardoned. It is about Harold Morris, who was falsely accused of murder and given two life sentences; but in the end, finds redemption in Christianity and is released from prison. Authors use nonfiction literature to influence their reader through hard